Popular Surfing Areas: Plan your next vacation to be sure to catch a good swell

Surfing is a global sport and one can find a surfer in almost every coastal nation in the world. Here’s a breakdown of popular surfing areas around the world, so no matter where you are, there’s bound to be a suitable area nearby.

France (particularly the Atlantic coast south of the Gironde)

Australia

• Newcastle, where Surfest is held annually.
• Gold Coast, Snapper Rocks and Burleigh Heads, where many surf competitions are held annually.
• Sydney’s ocean beaches, particularly Bondi Beach.
• Victorian beaches Jan Juc and Bells Beach, where the annual Rip Curl Pro takes place every year.
• Western Australia beaches Margaret River.

Brazil

Peru

• Cape White
• Pico Alto (home of the South American Mavericks)
• Blue hill
• San Galan
• Chicama (home of the longest left in the world)

Mexico City

• Baja States of Baja California Norte and Baja California Sur; Several great breaks, with Todos Santos Island being the most famous.
• Mainland: States of Sinaloa, Jalisco, Colima (home to Boca de Pascuales and its huge beachbreak), Michoacán (where rural surf towns abound), Guerrero, Oaxaca (where Puerto Escondido, the “Mexican pipeline” is located), and Chiapas . .
• gulf coast

Indonesia

Ireland

• The Maharees – South West Ireland County Kerry
• Easkey North West Coast near Sligo

New Zealand

• Manu Bay and Ballena Bay, Raglan
• Bay of Plenty and East Coast, Mount Maunganui

South Africa

• Amanzimtoti
• Cape San Francisco (Seal Point)
• Durban
• Elandsbay
• Jeffrey’s Bay
• Mossel Bay
• Scottburg
• port alfred
• Port Elizabeth

United Kingdom

• Fistral Beach in Newquay Cornwall
• Croyde Bay in North Devon
• The Mumbles near Swansea, Wales

USA

• Northern California, while sometimes having its moments, is a much less consistent place to surf than Southern California, with consistently worse winds and waves. The main problem is that most places are too exposed to wind and waves, often resulting in “stormy” surf. Northern California is home to one of the most revered and dangerous places in the world, Mavericks, which is unmatched in Southern California.
• Southern California, from San Diego all the way up Santa Barbara, boasts exceptional beaches like Windansea, Tourmaline Park, Ponto, Lunada Bay, Huntington Beach, San Onofre, and Rincon, and is where American surf music and culture began to spread. evolve. This stretch of coastline is notable for the large number of consistently nice and surfable breaks.
• Most of Hawaii, especially the north shore of Oahu. The North Shore is home to perhaps the best stretch of surfing waves in the world, including Sunset Beach, Waimea Bay and the world’s most famous and revered wave, “Pipeline” (or “Banzai Pipeline”), named for the enormous abysses is regularly launched on the heads of amazed surfers.
• Florida’s central east coast, particularly Brevard County, is known as the “small wave surfing capital of the world” and is home to such surfing luminaries as Kelly Slater, Todd Holland and Matt Kechele.
• The Mid-Atlantic region includes popular places like North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Long Island, Virginia Beach, Ocean City (Md.), and the Jersey Shore.
• There are decent breaks all over the East Coast, especially on Cape Cod Massachusetts
• Even areas along the Great Lakes receive local storm surges with barrels of fresh water.

The west coast of the Americas tends to have better surfing areas than the east coast. While the continental shelf off the west coast drops rapidly, to the east it stretches out a great distance, creating drag and forming smaller, less powerful waves.